"In his newest book the Melanesian theorist and theologian SUPER A presents an affectionate chronicle into the future of cargo cult. Extracted from the practices of his home island, New Hanover, SUPER A elaborates on the basics of the cult and shows the difficult implications of simulation and over-identification today. While under the influence of US Army in the mid 1940’s and 50’s the people of Melanesia developed an ostentatious practice mimicking the US culture, worshipping the wealth (cargo!) of the foreigners in the hope of its return. What became hereafter ridiculed by many for its naivety -- the islanders cleared the indigenous forests, built faked airplanes and landing stripes, even elected Lyndon Johnson to be their president -- poses a challenge to the dialectics of economy and creativity. It is both a model for marketing as well as political resistance, as Prof. Dr. Franz Liebl shows in his insightful epilogue. In this step-to-step manifesto SUPER A draws from the rich heritage of cargo cult and shows its renewed promise for the 21st century. The book itself combines a richly illustrated part and an epistle to the land of Westphalia, Germany. For anyone involved directly or indirectly with cargo cult, this highly acclaimed book is essential reading."

The XXX incident

by Jacob Lillemose
transcript, Goldsmith 2009

I’m For Real and So Can You. Seeking Authenticity and Finding Criticality

Good afternoon everyone, as this is a conference on authenticity I have a Confession to make. This slot was originally intended to be more of a performative segment in the form of a conversation that should have featured the American stunt legend and daredevil exceptional Evil Knievel. Evil Knievel and I were to talk about a project we did during the month of August last summer.

Unfortunately though, Mr. Knievel can’t be here today. He is, much due to what have happened in the last year, including our project, on a sabbatical right now. The sabbatical involves periods of full isolation and I haven’t been able to get in contact with him.

It is me, therefore, who will talk about the project “HIGH ON LIFE!” As you will be made aware of, this is not an ideal situation and all I can do is to recognize these circumstances and encourage all of you to do the same.

But first let me introduce the project.

In the summer of 2008 I as a freelance curator invited the legendary Evil Knievel to realize an exhibition project in the Freetown of Christiania in Copenhagen.

I knew Evil Knievel from my childhood. With great excitement I had seen his performances on television when visiting my American relatives and had become an instant fan.

Thus, the idea of inviting him to do a project in Denmark came natural to me and of course it was a special honor when he accepted. The project evolved over a period of a year from the first contact. The point of departure was, like in all of Evil’s performances, the American Dream. At the time I was doing research on “how the 60s counterculture shaped the personal computer industry” to quote the title of John Markoff’s insightful book from 2005. I presented Evil with the research and my thoughts about how artificial mind expansion whether by drugs or computers was used to develop the liberated individualism that constitutes the heart and soul of the American Dream. Mr. Knievel seemed to like the concept as he told me he had always had a thing with psychedelic culture. Computers he didn’t care much about though, although he had just started using email.

After some months Mr. Knievel returned to me with a proposal for a project entitled “Psychedelia as the next porn”. The project went straight to the matter, so to speak, and despite the appropriateness of this approach considering the context of Denmark as a liberal country when it comes to both drugs and sex during our initial conversations the project developed in a more meditative direction.

We finally agreed on a project that he entitled “HIGH ON LIFE!”; a project concerned with raising the awareness for the spirituality of the American dream (or lack of it that is). As he said, “What we need most today are not big solutions, but a sense of purity. Simple ideas we can believe in. Simple ideas and a sense of ourselves that we can reinforce. Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny. All it takes is accepting the challenge and do it. Live up to your promise. Say ‘YES’!”

The project, it was decided, was to take place at the commercial gallery, Gallopperiet, in Christiania, which, as you probably know, is a Freetown or hippie commune within the city limits of Copenhagen. It was established in 1971 when a group of left wing activists squatted an old Navy base and transformed it into a Freetown. On a piece of paper published in the fall later that year the goal of Christiania was declared to be “to built a self-governing community, where each individual can express him or herself freely”, and ever since this has been the guiding principle for the inhabitants of the Freetown. Evil was attracted to Christiania’s celebration of personal freedom and said that the Freetown was an obvious place for him to pursue his quest.

The project included an installation in the gallery space. In the middle of the space was a sort of tent made out of haystacks and pieces of blue and off-white linen and in the middle of the tent, on top of the hay was a blanket and a meditation pillow for the visitors’ free use.

On a low, primitive table that he had read in preparation for the project. The books included Arthur K. Moore’s The Frontier Mind, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, or Tom Wicker’s One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream; to name just a few. Again the visitors were invited to sit down and read the books.

In a glass cabinet off to the side was a presentation of tightly folded tie-die t-shirts that Evil Knievel had produced at a performance prior to the opening of the exhibition. The t-shirts were all in the colors of the American flag, red, blue and white, and it said, in gold, “You can’t practice what I do, you can’t master it either” – one of Evil Knievel’s many renowned mottos.

Next to these exclusive merchandise the show also featured a series of inexpensive posters. These motivational posters – that you can see here – derive from Evil Knievel’s long lasting interest in the need of a positive mental attitude. In his famous words: “When you do what I do for a living, you have to have a positive mental attitude, and when that positive attitude doesn’t work when you make the jump, you have to be man enough to handle the circumstances. In my case, I’m man enough.”

As Evil Knievel always fought and still fights for the virtue of the positive in and with his career these motivational posters are thought to help build a positive outlook on life, to help build self-esteem and endorse a positive vision. Not so much as they are signs of generosity, they are meant as a positive device, as a medium, if you like a modern-day-mantra, that people could take home and so share into the experience of Evil Knievel at home or elsewhere.

So on opening night Evil Knievel invited the guests to join him in a collective reading, where everyone sat down a circle and read passages from Timothy Leary’s classic of psychedelic literature Politics of Ecstasy published in 1968 at the time when was advising people “to drop out of the fake prop TV game” and addressing many of the issues of self-discovery that also informed HIGH ON LIFE! We had also discussed the possibility of Leary’s text, Start your own religion written two years earlier in which he tells the reader that “you are the spiritual voyager furthering the most ancient, noble quest of man”, but in the end we decided on the chapter from Politics of Ecstasy entitled “Poet of Interior Journey” interpreting Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha as a description of the psychedelic experience avant la lettre. Although, Evil was not particularly impressed by Leary’s role as an oracle of the alternative, he acknowledged his combination of self-centeredness and transgression.

Focusing on the theme of “purity” as essential to the spirituality of the American Dream Evil Knievel also hosted a series of social events, using workshops, a public reading, films and food as their media.

The film program consisted of three parts, a consecutive screenings of three films on the life of Frans of Assisi dating from the 1970s to the present, then a dozen of psychedelic porn films describing good and bad trips, in some cases involving actual sex but in most cases resulting in fooling around, and finally Mervyn Leroys epic Quo Vadis from 1960, which in the classic Hollywood style describes the fall of the Roman Empire under Nero, because as Evil said “it ain’t real until you’ve seen it on the big screen”. What united the films was a deep felt concern into the crisis of the US today that Robert Scheer and others claim is on the brink of drowning itself in its desire for the pornographic. (Susan Sontag/Baudrillard)

The food program was equally an extravaganza. All the events were headed under the title “Getting Higher – A Pure Way to Your Self” and invited the visitors to take their time to experience the purity of the consumption. The first event was an all-you-can-eat-VEGAN night American style, serving among others raw cabbage, tofu and potatoes. With the second the step was taken to a more “green tea battle” in which two local tea houses competed for serving the most meditatively satisfying cup of tea, and concluding the series of events was a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream party, sponsored by Ben & Jerry who apart from coming from the same part of the country were Evil lives has as their declared mission “to improve the life quality of humans”.

Yet, you wouldn’t understand the project to its full extent if you think the installation and events as the main part of the Evil’s stay at Christiania. As I said Evil Knievel was visiting Christiania with the clear intention to retrieve the integrity of the American Dream through spirituality; and the installations and events were only conceived as the pretext for a much bigger endeavor.

In Christiania he retreated form the limelight and indulged in the practice of meditation to find his inner wholeness and overcome common malice like individual isolation and social conformity. Hence, every day of the exhibition – three long weeks – he was meditating on the outer banks of the Freetown, in a hole, an endeavor in itself of breathtaking precision and determination, of beauty almost.

Evil was sitting there, whether in bright sunlight and purring rain, on a journey of exceptional dimension, exploring his inner self. “I am here to explore. I am on a quest for personal integrity and unity. Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill what he is meant. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t do drugs. I relinquish anything that’s wrong. I’m high on life!“

The hole in itself is a theme with long credentials within the tradition of meditation. Here maybe 4 feet in diameter and 40 inches in depth, it refers to the story of a long list of eremites, from Saint Thomas, to the training of Tibetan monks up to the revelation of the great prophet. As Leigh Eric Schmidt says in Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality: “This (…) was likened to a reservoir of superhuman power ever brimming over and pouring itself out as an immanent presence in the world: it was always poised to flow into the lives of those who were prepared to receive it.”

As you now have a fair account of the exhibition and as I said: this is a confession, I’d like to talk about a series of problems I ended up having with my role as a curator and with the overall exhibition concept. As straightforward as the project may seem, it bears some incomprehensible obstacles for me.

One was what you might call a moral problem and concerns the promotion of the American Dream. I mean, which values was I actually representing? Had I let Evil go too far in his quest? During the course of the exhibition of I became increasingly doubtful of Evil’s endeavor in this respect and not least of my involvement. Especially nagging was the feeling that I had deposited my critical sense and had l become instrumentalised by him.

This was immediately followed by another concern shared by most contemporary curators, namely how to preserve the integrity of the site-specific context. In the case of Christiania this concern was very apparent. How to approach a commune so heavily involved with the culture of the self with a project like High On Life without exploiting that very culture? Would curating authenticity in this Mecca of authenticity make me a parasite?

These were moral concerns that I had, but ultimately neglected for the bigger purpose of Evil’s quest for the revival of the spirituality of the American Dream as a universal value.

Another question, which had informed my initial interest in Evil’s project and which seems relevant in continuation of my concerns about the context, was if mediation as a practice in authenticity contained a critical potential, or even, if being authentic was a condition for being critical, and vice versa? Would inhabiting authenticity perform what has been referred to by Irit Rogoff as “an embodied criticality,” meaning “an active, political mode of being in the world”? In Christiania this question was very real, since the inhabitants of the Freetown consider their culture of authenticity as critical practices that produces new subjects that escape the existing categories of the welfare state society, which would correspond with how Rogoff imagines a critical practice that “exists in the realm of the untaxable.” However, to qualify the connection between Rogoff’s theoretical propositions and the inhabitants’ self-perception a more substantial discussion of the meaning and role of “the political” on the side of both parts needs to be developed. Furthermore, it needs to be explored how art and cultural practices can be said to inhabit an “untaxable” space. Does it mean that they escape contextualizing, or a least desire to do so? It is an intriguing point making a case for a new autonomy yet, both the art that Rogoff refers to and Christiania are deeply connected to specific histories, institutions and discourses and to understand their political engagement with world without taking these various contexts into consideration seems one-dimensional.

So to bring this back to my involvement, the question would be if curating as a “performance” of translation can unite authenticity and criticality? I still cannot answer this question.

But what if the context of this question was not a culture of authenticity but of criticism itself?

This is not just speculation as Evil and I was encouraged by the editors of an online art magazine to submit a text about the project.

As Evil is protective of his brand of authenticity he is dismissive to having his ideas mediated by others, and therefore the interview format was quickly agreed upon. In fact, we decided to extend the project via a series of interviews with the intention to spread the message beyond the geographical territory of Christiania and reach.

Before, we were encouraged by the art magazine we had already placed one interview in the Danish daily Politiken, entitled “There’s a New Guru in Town”, a heading that Evil was especially pleased with, and one in another art magazine SUM, entitled “If you have but one chance make it count”, which quoted the one of Evil’s popular motivation posters.

Please find copies of both interviews in the hand-outs that is circulating.

However, unlike the two other interviews, which were conducted during Evil’s stay in Christiania, one of them on the day he left, this interview was conducted via email. Or rather, I attempted to conduct it via email. Evil’s aforementioned sabbatical had already begun and I had sort of fallen out of contact with him, not really sure where the HIGH ON LIFE! project has taken him. After I had written him several times to remind him of the interview without any response I suddenly received an email from him with the audio file of an already finished interview that was done by a fellow curator, Diana Ebster, in conjunction with Evil’s recent exhibition DARSANARAMA at the Osram Gallery. I was naturally reluctant to the idea of publishing an interview that I had not conducted myself, again the premonition of instrumentalisation presented itself. At the same time, I realised that considering circumstances I would not be able to conduct an interview myself, so I decided to play along with Evil’s tactics and simply write an introduction to the interview without any editing.

Maybe, I should have been more insistent on contributing with my insight knowledge of the project, because the editors rejected the interview.

My professional pride would normally prevent me from mentioning a rejection in a presentation, if it had not been for the fact that this specific rejection was based on a supposed lack of the Rogoffian criticality, or perhaps authentic criticism is a better way to phrase it. Of course, I believe that the editors misunderstood not only the interview, which was just a media by-product, but more crucially the overall project, not least in terms of its connection of authenticity and critical involvement. Furthermore, the rejection actualized the questions that had informed the project from the very beginning.

Here’s the email I received from the editors. Let me read it aloud.

Dear Jacob,

I hope you are well. Thank you for sending us a contribution. I am afraid we have decided against publishing your piece.

Our objections are based on content of the piece. We were expecting more elaborative conversation that would have taken place between you. I can understand the idea of including another person organically in but the piece you send us is no longer about the project you have realised in Christiania and we cannot trace any form of criticality or productive involvement in the text piece.

It is not at least in self-referential-criticality that we could force ourselves to assume. I hope you receive this rejection with understanding.

Best wishes,
xxx

As the following communication with Evil Knievil and my eventual response to the editors show I was doubtful of this notion “self-referential criticality” and what it implied. Evidently, Rogoff informed the second half of the notion, but what did they mean with “self-referential” and its references to Kantian philosophy and Greenbergian formalism? Were the editors of the opinion that the project was not critical because it did not reflect upon its claim to authenticity? Were they suggesting that he was too positive/affirmative about the practice of mediation, the notion of spirituality and of the American Dream? If that was the case then their claim to “self-referential criticality” in itself seemed to represent a claim to authenticity, or to criticality as a particular authentic form of criticism.

In accordance with Evil Kneivel, I eventually decided to respond to the refusal. Not to make the editors change their mind – as Evil had reminded on several occasions, it’s the failures that make the successes – but to enquire further about this notion of “self-referential criticality”.

Dear xxx,

Well, honestly, we‘re a bit surprised. Your criticism is that the interview is not about the project at Christiania. But it most certainly is. What we did at Christiania was only the beginning of a larger project, which is now being continued and developed in other contexts, including the show at Osram. To focus exclusively on the Christiania show would be too retrospective, if not nostalgic for a project that is all about continuous exploration and expansion (+ we already did that for the international magazine sum). What you have is a report of where the project is now, in a state of progress. Concerning criticality, we must have very different conception of what that means. I admit that the text is not a piece of regular academic writing but in relation to Evil Knievil that kind of writing doesn’t make much sense. He refuses to express his thinking in sophisticated sentences. He wants straight, no-nonsense sentences that “hit the reader right between the eyes” as he says, meaning that they should have an immediate effect but also throw the reader off. In fact, I wrote the piece this way to expand the notion of what criticality could be, which I think
is highly needed I wanted to present a text that would confuse the reader and force him to critically consider, not only the figure of Evil Knievel but the concept of HIGH ON LIFE!

Cheers, Jacob

The answer I got in return left me wondering even more.

Dear Jacob,

It is mutual situation. Since we have been also surprised with your contribution. The piece is for us not genuinely clear. As a reader without any knowledge of the project in Christiania or in Oxfam, you cannot grasp what is really happening, or that it is a larger ongoing project than one single stop. We think the text lacks articulations. For us it is totally fine if you involve another participant. It is important how you involve that person, what do you produce with that inclusion. We have asked you to explore in the content of the project so that we were expecting more than a mere report on what has been and is taking place.

For the terming of criticality, we are looking for subjective involvements in what our writers/ contributors reflect upon. And it can be a submission of any textual form. Not only academical writing but also performative writing.

We decided against your text, since we did not think that the text was producing what we have expected to.

Best wishes, xxx

As I’ve already indicated the notion of criticality had been part of my approach to the project but the editors’ response made me wonder if perhaps the notion of criticality was altogether misleading here, because it is too closely related to the notion of authenticity, or rather to a desire for authenticity.

Setting out to “curate authenticity” my intentions were straightforward: to support Evil Knievel in his quest for authenticity. That is absolutely clear. Yet, I also wanted to use Evil Knievel’s quest to pursue ambiguity as means of reading a discursive phenomena exactly like authenticity.

So the refusal made me think that maybe, a better way to comprehend the tactics of the project is the notion of “over-identification” that characterizes a number of contemporary practices and has been theorized by Slavoj Zizek. In his text “Why Laibach and NSK are not fascist?” on the Slovenian artists NSK and Laibach, Zizek describes how Laibach through their imagery, use of language and performances “stages an aggressive, inconsistent mixture of Stalinism, Nazism, and Blut und Boden ideology.” Rather than dissociating themselves from these fascist politics, criticizing them from a non-fascist position, Laibach appropriated their aesthetics, and appropriating to the degree that they seem “more fascist than fascism”, which is what Zizek with a psychoanalytic term calls over-identification.

However, by being appropriated by this tactic of over-identification the aesthetics have the opposite effect than in fascism proper. Where fascism uses aesthetics as the expression of an identity and the means to identify that identity, Laibach’s “inconsistent mixture” confuses questions of identity and the power and value politics associated with it. The impossibility of definitely answering the common question if Laibach is really a fascist band then is essential the point (and in that sense Zizek actually does the band a disservice by explaining why they are not). As is the fact that Laibach’s core fan base includes both right-wing activists to left-wing intellectuals. Hence, the legend goes that at a Laibach concert neo-Nazis and Punks engaged in a discussion, not a fight, about who were Laibach’s true fans. Instead of recognizing either side’s political views Laibach’s answer to the episode was total distance, expressed in the statement that “nobody owns Laibach.” Meaning that the political radicality of their project is to confront the audience with the impossibility of identifiable positions leaving them with only the negation of ambiguous positions.

Finally, what I had come to realize through the interview incident was the fragility of this strategy of “curating authenticity”. Where I had set out to go beyond boundaries, institutional as well as political, through a quest for authenticity I had come to encounter the restrictions of a desire for authenticity, or authenticity as a discourse of desire. Where I was seeking authenticity, not desperately but in anticipation, the editors seemed to have already found it in their notion of “self-referential criticality”. To quote Zizek, they expressed a belief in the Big Other.

As a seeker like Evil and the makers of American spirituality that Leigh Smiths chronicles in Restless Souls I was not fashioning illusions of having found anything. Rather I was embracing the search itself as a highly ambiguous endeavor and in that sense the rejection of the interview as an expression of confusion about the project was perhaps inversely a sign of the project’s success and of the failure of the editors.

The editors were hoping for a clear position, but I claim that the radicality of the project was that it confused positions, that it was ultimately a non-position. Which to me seems to be an obvious locus of criticality in the confused, paradoxical and ironic political context of contemporary society.

The radicality of this non-position is that it forces us to reflect on, to call into question, our own position, because we cannot identify with it as the Big Other. According to Zizek, we come “to experience how the Big Other also does not possess the truth about our desire, how our desire is without guarantee, groundless, authorized only in itself.” The editors, one could say, failed to understand that and did the exact opposite by exposing their belief in the Big Other.

So to conclude with a paraphrase of an essential part of Zizek’s argument, “Evil Knievel does not function as an answer, but a question. By means of the elusive character of his desire, of the indecidability of where he actually stands, Evil Knievel compels us to take up our own position and decide upon our desires.”

LIGHT AND THE POWER OF DREAMS

by Diana Ebster

After his stay at the free town of Christiania (Copenhagen/Denmark) earlier this year the stunt legend EVIL KNIEVEL for a second time devotes his efforts to the renewal of the spirituality of the American Dream. Driven by his own life story and his experience as a living icon, Evil Knievel in his exhibition DARSANARAMA revives the spirit of this dream. Openly he talks about his own revelation.

Mr. Evil Knievel thanks for talking to us today. I think I speak for all of us, if I say, we are very honored to have you here at Osram.

Diana, the pleasure is all on my side.

In our conversations leading to this exhibition we were talking about your personal quest. You were saying that you feel like a changed man. How does this differ to your former life as a stuntman? What is your focus now?

There is a time in my life when I realize that there is more to it than physical challenges or the quest for recognition, the hunt for fame and fortune. I had to understand this. It wasn’t easy. I am not so much a stuntman now. I am an explorer.

Today I try to concentrate on intrinsic values. I am exploring the spiritual side of life. You know, there are only three mysteries: where we came from, why we do what we do, and where we are going? You don’t know and I don’t know. Nobody knows. Still those are important questions.

You also mentioned your special relation to light. Maybe you can tell us a bit more? What does it mean for you to be at Osram – the world largest producer of lighting systems.

Can I say again, how honored I am to be here at Osram. I know we were talking about my motivations and there is a very personal core to it. Since my early childhood I was driven by the dream of light. It was a strong calling. That this now coexists with my recent experience and an opportunity like Osram is a fact I rate very high.

So it is a dream that brings you here?

A: In a way, yes. It was always my dream to be … how should I put it? I wanted to be in the light. You know, when I was kid, I had this idea of standing inside the beam of a bright light. I was covered by it and its radiating blaze gave me energy and strength. It was amicable and kind. Ever since the notion of light had a strong attraction to me and I can say that it is a driving force in my life and career.

Maybe you want to elaborate on your experience beyond your childhood? I understand that there is a broader theme to it. In a previous interview you were talking about the power of dreams.

You know, dreams are like stars ... you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny.

Does this correspond with your experience over the summer? You were meditating, I understand, in a hole for over a month.

It was three weeks, but let’s not get caught up in nuances. I set out to revive the spirituality of the American Dream. The meditation was a process to connect to its spiritual core. To my spiritual core. It was an intense experience. -- I had a dream. I had a dream about a new people; about a people to be the guiding light of the people. It’s our promise. We have to keep it.

Why do you think the revival of the American Dream is so important? I am especially curious about its spiritual side.

Just look around you. Everywhere everything becomes more and more outward orientated. So does the American dream. It has lost it spiritual core. It is virtually at the point of sell out. The renewal of this spirituality of the American Dream can just do us good.

“Evil Knievel” is a symbol of the American Dream. You are the American Dream. We know that part of this dream is the ability to re-invent yourself. To set out to become what you aspire, to be new. -- Why do you think this is important? How does the idea of reinventing the spirituality of the American Dream come to play here?

Dreams, desires, aspirations, hope, the power to re-invent ourselves, they all are among the most precious sentiments we hold dear. And not just out of the blue. There is a reason for it. -- When I came along the people needed someone that was truthful and honest. They wanted what I did, someone who would spill blood and break bones and suffer brain concussions, someone that really hurt and that wasn’t a phony. And I wasn’t a phony. That’s what they needed, that’s all. And they pulled for the underdog. And I got hurt so bad, but yet I kept trying. I refused to lie down and die. I didn’t quit; I always tried to get up. And America needed that worse than anything in the world.

Yes, but obviously your profession has changed quite a bit since these blood-spilling times. You still think that is what is needed today?

Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken. The mission might have changed, but the undertaking is still the same. America means opportunity, freedom, and hope. And so does the American Dream.

And don’t underestimate the power of dreams. They will become true. Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.

It are these simple ideas – ideas, we can believe in – that bound us together, but far more important that will give each of us a new direction, a purpose, a goal to aspire. Remember, the story is, to excel yourself.

The theme of the “superhero” is a reoccurring notion of your appearances. How do you see those connected to the idea of the American Dream? Ken Kesey once said, superheroes are the only truly American myths left. They are, he says, the modern idea of the nonconformist. What do you say? You think he is right?

Well, I don’t know who that guy is, but let me tell you one thing, there is nothing special or mystical about it. If you live a life larger than life, it sticks. The expectations rose. That’s it. I always knew I was meant for greatness.

And when I talk about -- what you call -- “superheroes” in my autosuggestion workshops (*Think Positive / Postgraduate Me) I try to remind the participants on how to accomplish. It is about a positive mental attitude, about having a vision, about being determent and self-dedicated.

Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. Do. Dare. Live. The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.

“IF YOU HAVE BUT ONE CHANCE MAKE IT COUNT”

by Jacob Lillemose

In August 2008 stunt legend Evil Knievel traveled to the Freetown of Christiania, a dwelling within Copenhagen, Denmark, founded in 1971 by anti-establishment cultural activists as an alterative community to the Danish welfare state. Today Christiania is still a place for personal opportunities and social experiments as well as one of the biggest tourist attractions in Denmark.

All along being inspired by Christiania’s vivid history Evil Knievel came to Christiania as part of his ongoing exploration HIGH ON LIFE!; a self-assigned mission to reclaim the spirituality of the American Dream. And as part of this personal quest Evil Knievel was meditating in a hole on the outer banks of Christiania for more than three weeks.

Part of this project was also a display at Gallopperiet, Christiania’s Museum of Arts, displaying a number of objects, introducing key motifs of HIGH ON LIFE! The display included a series of auto-suggestive posters, a self-assigned library of spiritual books, a collection of tie-dye shirts with the exhibition slogan “You Can’t Practice What I Do. You Can’t Master It Either” and a comfortable tent made of haystacks. This display was the setting for a number of social events hosted by Evil Knievel in the context of his quest, among others using food and film as media for experiences of purity plus a special collective reading of Timothy Leary’s 'Politics of Ecstasy'.

During his stay Evil Knievel engaged in a series of conversations with the Danish curator Jacob Lillemose, who helped coordinate the project. The following interview is edited from their very last conversation that took place just before Evil Knievel left Christiania (on Sunday, August 31st). It finds him in a state of high excitement and confusion.

Mr. Evil Knievel, before we start to talk about your experience at Christiania, I would like to know, why Christiania? The place appears as a peculiar pick to me, considering your occupation.

Jacob, thanks for asking. It is a very legitimate question and I am glad you bring it up.

In the beginning I had my doubts too. Christiania is clearly not an obvious choice for someone with my reputation and I anticipate in you raising the question at least a bit of curiosity why I - as an American hero - come here and enter the realm of counterculture.

You know, I think the notion of counterculture is overrated, just like the idea of “a state divided”.

Yes, can you elaborate on the counterculture side of Christiania and how it has affected your stay?

I am very much drawn to Christiania's vision of personal freedom. A place that is not restricted by any rule, but that allows you, us, that allows anyone the space to develop to his or her potentials, to become what one seeks to become.

I think that's a great accomplishment of Christiania and worth preserving. We are so restricted by the old ways, so submissive to regulations, and so strangulated by conformity that it seems almost impossible to connect to your potentials.

That's what I like about Christiania. It reclaims this space of personal freedom. It’s a beacon of personal opportunities. It’s a frontier.

Tell us about your time at Christiania and why it was important for you to come here in the first place, away from your regular audience?

My time here was devoted to contemplation and a reconsolidation of the American Dream. It was a very personal motif. You know, what we need most today are not big solutions, but a sense of purity. Simple ideas we can believe in. Simple ideas and a sense of ourselves we can reinforce.

Before I came I was driven by the urge of a renewal that I knew this time could only come from an intense experience. I should add: other than that of my stunts, of course. I I wanted to connect to my inner core.

Sounds like you were very determined and had a pretty fixed plan.

About the future I can’t say a lot. Like jumping and failing is a circle it is my ambition to expand my capacity. As always in life at the beginning of my trip I was fully aware about the possibility to fail. I didn’t know where I was going and what to expect. I don’t ask myself these kinds of questions. In fact, I don’t ask questions, I’m Evil Knievel.

Then tell us more precisely what you did the last three weeks?

As you know, I was sitting in a hole – on the outer banks of Christiania – meditating.

Okay, let me rephrase, what sort of relation do you see between Christiania and the American Dream, let alone this relation and spirituality?

There is conformity in the idea. My endeavor is the attempt to reconsolidate some of the spiritual shortcomings of our time. Take the US for example. We are currently loosing a sense of unity and integrity, and it's all owed to the fact that there is an obvious lack in faith. A lack in the faith in the spiritual superiority of the American Dream.

My quest is the reawakening of this spirituality and I think Christiania is the perfect spot for it. It is a place to get new impulses, to find your inner wholeness, to connect to your deepest self.

It's time to start to leave the whiners behind us and to work again on a join vision, a new spiritual vision of the US.

What did you find on your quest in Christiania?

Jacob, like any visionary I aim to challenge received opinions. I am here as much to experience as to explore. Sometimes we need to ignore the worn paths and engage with the other, go and explore the unexpected.

Sure, sure, the disciplined seeker reveals a new path to spirituality, but maybe you want to talk about your experience?

I hope you don’t mind, I can’t answer that right now. The experience is very fresh on my mind and what I have encountered I still have to digest and foremost understand.

I came to Christiania to retreat from the limelight and devote my time to mediation and contemplation. It was a personal pilgrimage, a journey of mind expansion and inner wholeness.

All I can say it was a revelation. A revelation I want to share.

What kind of revelation?

I had a dream! – I saw things. Strange things, new things, exciting things. Jacob, we have to restore our faith, This could be the beginning of a new journey.

One of your personal mottoes suggests that, we can't practice, what you do, we can’t master it either. What are we then supposed to do? How can we follow your example?

Believe in yourself. Be unique. Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny. Courage to be is the courage to accept oneself as accepted in spite of being unacceptable. He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being. Accept the challenge.

So should we expect to see you explore other frontiers than counterculture in the future?

Counterculture is but a minor aspect in my quest. Frontiers are always only a means, never an end. But, yes, I will engage in whatever, if it helps my cause.

One last question and I would like to come back to your public image and that of Christiania? Don't you think the stay might hurt your image in the long run?

Don't get me wrong: I don’t do drugs. I relinquish anything that’s wrong. I’m high on life!

The evil eye: photography and America's Electoral Appeal.

by Jill Conner
Afterimage • Sept-Oct, 2008

With each election year, American voters confer and ultimately elect a presidential candidate who can keep their country a progressive, global power. This year in particular, many American voters claim they want to elect a candidate who will improve the nation's image in the eyes of other countries. But do voters really know what their collective image looks like, in addition to where it comes from? In his 1972 essay "Photography and Electoral Appeal" Roland Barthes states that a candidate's photographic image functions like a mirror of the larger populace: "What most of our candidates offer us through their likeness is a type of social setting, the spectacular comfort of family, legal and religious norms, the suggestion of innately owning such items of bourgeois property as Sunday Mass, xenophobia, steak and chips, cuckold jokes, in short, what we call an ideology." (1) Such a thorough image, if it does exist, does indeed turn the voter into a hero, one whose own projection of himself is electable. (2) But Barthes's three-page essay does not go far enough, because the full image of the voter is also located within the scripted moments that dominate daily life in the United States.

Although the U.S. is a young country, it relies strongly on historical re-enactments--such as the Wampanoag Indian at Plymouth Rock, the Fourth of July, or George Washington crossing the Delaware--to preserve the authenticity of national identity. Stunt performers like Evel Knievel or the wrestlers of the Word Wrestling Federation have engaged in daredevil acts that aid in the proliferation of America as a global brand. German photographer Jens Kabisch expands the boundary of the photograph and promotes the performative agent, "Evil Knievel," to examine Americans' constant need for self-simulation. Unlike the daredevil who struggled to break past impossible odds. Evil blends into society and explores the tension that underscores much of the free but scripted life. A closer look at the artist's documented performances reveal a portrait of the American voter, which is heavily weighed down with irony, especially when seen in contrast to the work of Chris Burden, Larry Clark, Bruce Nauman, and Stephen Shore.

The inquisitive photographs of Clark and Shore attempt to capture the underlying substance of the American Dream. Clark's phenomenal series "Tulsa" (1971) depicted young men shooting up drugs, driving cars, playing with guns, and engaging in violence. This particular collection of photographs echoed Clark's own demystification with the Midwest, which later extended to New York City. Shore's view of America appears in images of roadside motels, diners, bathrooms, homes, yards, and cars. With a strong focus on inanimate objects, Shore exposed the various mechanisms that sustain the daily mundane. Evil Knievel began where Clark and Shore left off. Inspired by Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel's heroic incarnation and a motorcycle jump over a 20-foot-long box of rattlesnakes and a cage containing two mountain lions. Evil Knievel transforms the outstanding hero who could defeat all odds into the American Everyman. Utilizing the process of duplication in both physical and photographic form. Evil proliferates through a series of likenesses while adhering to a highly curtailed public image that presents American society back to itself.
At London's Hoxton Distillery in 2002, Evil Knievel rolled and kneaded plastic-like sausages as part of a performance titled, "You Are Only Humans." Dressed in a red-trimmed white jumpsuit that sported a patch of the American flag, Evil is seen wearing mirrored sunglasses, headphones, an equally patriotic helmet, and a pair of shoes that together reflect the stars and stripes, symbolizing American freedom. In 2003, Evil spent one week in the Windows Gallery of London for "More Balls Than Brains." Featured in the artist's self-published fanzine from 2005 titled Being Evil Knievel, the images from this performance depict Evil Knievel, sitting inside a window display wearing nothing but white underwear, a white t-shirt, and two blue slippers with white stars. A large picture of the Manhattan skyline hangs in the background while the artist sits passively in a chair, wearing sunglasses and watching television. In an interview with Ken T. Evans, Evil states:When I dropped out of school, I made my living selling polish for cars door to door. Those experiences shaped me a lot [because] I got to know the heart of America. Traveling to almost every corner of the country, I had the chance to talk to a lot of people. You know, when you talk to them in person, that's when you get to know their problems, whether it's in Butte, Montana or Times Square. (3)

The notion of the American hero is nothing new to postmodern video and photography, particularly with respect to Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman.

Burden's documented performance "Shoot" (1971) at F Space in Santa Ana, California, featured the artist bravely receiving a gunshot to the arm within a gallery setting. Additional performances that also exist as photographic stills feature the artist holding a handgun up to an airplane as it flies across the sky as well as the artist's attempt to throw a small handmade airplane across the border that separates the U.S. and Mexico. Nauman, on the other hand, is absent from his context as seen in "Mapping the Studio II (Fat Chance John Cage)" (2001) or as the victimized anti-hero of "Clown Torture" (1971). In both cases, Burden and Nauman act out their own ideas, which serve as strong critiques against self-assurance and security. Their concepts fail to be sustainable, however, due to the demands made upon authorship and the requirement that artists are expected to render something new and different. Even in television shows such as American Idol and America's Got Talent performers are expected to define their presence by creating a difference within the context of everyday life.

In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) by Erving Goffman, the author claims that any performer can be defined from other members of mainstream society when 1) a lack of physical or mental control arises; 2) the manner in which the performer is either over- or under-involved in the moment; 3) the external settingselling creates a sharp contrast that makes the performer stand out; or 4) the performance is a special case. (4) Although "some unmeant gestures occur in such a wide variety of performances ... that are in general so incompatible with ones being fostered," Goffman postulates that the human self is pitted against the socialized self. (5) Magdalena Kroener's recent essay in Kunstforum, "Political Landscapes: Description of a Location," features a thorough analysis of U.S. history as it began on the East Coast, and locates the notion of America within both the ersatz repetition of historic reenactments and in the photographic appeal of the most significant national monuments that are seen throughout the landscape and buildings of Washington, DC. The life-sized bronze statues in "Signer's Hall," for instance, feature forty-two delegates within a room of the National Constitution Center that are arranged in a picturesque way, as if posing for a photograph. (6) Kroener not only refers to Washington, DC as a city of memory and amnesia, but also asserts that the concept of reality is preserved in a series of performances that become part of a larger fantasy.

Evil Knievel expanded the American semiotic further in 2006 when he developed the alter-ego "Super A." When asked about the creation of a duplicate the artist replied, "Oh, it emerged over time. First I had, you know, this sense of otherness that I couldn't really place ...
I see it as a discovery of another side of myself. A very hidden self."(7) During that year, Super A was unveiled in a series of photographic portraits at the Kunstverein in Langenhagen, Germany, where half of the images featured Evil as a man with black skin coupled directly with an equal number of images that portray the artist as Caucasian. Super A is not so much a critique of the racial transgression of Evil as an appropriated representation of the Johnson Cult that emerged in Papua New Guinea in 1964 as a protest against the governments of New Zealand and Australia. Both countries attempted to force the Lavongai citizens of New Hanover to democratically elect a candidate who was provided to them on the election ballots. The citizens of Lavongai resoundingly wrote in the name of Lyndon B. Johnson as their preferred candidate because they desired the American government over that of Australia.

This irony grew out of the fact that the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean were also home to cargo cults, collective religious movements that emerged from the intersection of indigenous cultures with a military from First World countries. When America was setting up military bases in the 1940s for the purpose of fighting against Japan, members of the military introduced local residents to American products and modes of dress. In the wake of Americans having abandoned their bases and the region overall, the local tribesmen continued to gather together in order to re-enact mock military procedures with the hope that the Americans would one day return. Throughout the early 1940s, Johnson served with the U.S. Navy in New Zealand and Australia, where he served as an observer of bomber missions that took place throughout the South Pacific. Evil Knievel's bi-racial representations as Super A capture his adaptation of the Melanesian idea of the "American" and captures the resonance of the American semiotic that travels the world as a global brand. "Dallas, TX" (2006) features Evil being sworn into office inside the enclosed setting of Air Force One, posing the question of which country Johnson was meant to serve.

As American voters have shifted the country's priorities over time, so has Evil. The Clinton and Bush presidencies confirmed that the need for a president with military experience was on longer a critical factor. Most recently, however, the American electorate also demonstrated that the need for a president to clearly communicate and articulate ideas also received low priority. President George W. Bush highlighted his own lack of finesse in public speaking when he spoke to Yale graduates in the Spring of 2001: "To the 'C' students, I say, 'You, too, can be president of the United States."'(8) Likewise, Evil Knievel emulates Bush as a rugged cowboy in the "Crawford" series (2005), which portrays him wandering through a rural outpost, stopping to saw apart a fallen tree. Evil's subversion of Bush only highlights the president's performance of the hyper-masculine cowboy that Richard Prince featured in a series titled "Untitled (Cowboy)" in the late 1990s.
The identity and representation of both America and the American voter is lost within this scope of simulated imagery. On the occasion of the Fourth of July, 2008, Americans who were interviewed by the local news in New York City attempted to define the moment as both the right to vote and be a part of the government and the right to go to work and be everything you can be. As seen in the work of Evil Knievel, the definition of America has been based upon image, re-image, and animation to the point that the concept has almost no relation to our present day society due to the increasingly diverse population. Evil has extended the notion of what it means to be American into the practice of pop psychology. His fanzine from 2007 carries the subtitle Think Positive/Postgraduate Me and features images taken from the natural environment that are paired with phrases such as, "Imagine what you could be and be it"; "Fail. Fail again. Fail better"; and "You are born a champion!"(9) As seen in the "Upstate" series from 2007, Evil can appear as carefree and relaxed as a golfer living is Scarsdale, New York, or Pheonix, Arizona. In other words, the authorship of Evil Knievel is open to anyone who would like to perform the life of this scripted subject for photographic purposes, which echoes Evil's message: "Evil Knievel--Anyone, Anywhere, USA!" But for now, Evil's next performance will take place in Christiana, a historically independent community in Copenhagen, Denmark, and as part of a larger effort to think positively and inspire, the artist will spend a month in meditation.

TP/PM: Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham strikes me a highly positive example of the force of self-affirmation. Early
on in her career she has said and I quote from her 2001 autobiography “Learning to Fly”: ‘Right
from the beginning, I said I wanted to be more famous than Persil Automatic.’

If her early ambition to be more famous than Persil Automatic seemed to you surprising – or
even laughable – it shouldn’t have done. It was very astute of the young Posh Spice to choose not
Robbie Williams nor Sir Cliff Richard nor Madonna as her benchmark of fame but the country’s
best-known washing powder. Because just about the only thing that successful brands have in
common is a kind of fame. Indeed, it’s been suggested that brands are the real celebrities. And
for most human beings, fame not only holds a powerful fascination but bestows an incalculable
value on anything that enjoys it. We value the famous far more highly than the little known.

In her exceptional career – blessed with fame and fortune – these words have lingered like a
mantra over her: ‘to be more famous than Persil Automatic.’

High On Life!

Since 2000 Evil Knievel has performed on the international art scene with his spectacular
stunts, defying the audiences expectations and challenging their expectations. Now he has
arrived in Copenhagen’s Freetown Christiania where he will present ”Evil Knievel - High on
Life”. His appearance will mark the beginning of a new direction in his already expansive
work. In the context of Christiania he will explore the spiritual frontier of The American Dream
that he is so proud an incarnation of.

During his three-week stay at Christiania Evil Knievel will not only expand his imagery but the
concept of his profession through daily meditation and a variety of social activities focusing on
the theme “purity” and “puriﬁcation”.

Inquiring into the culture of psychedelia he will set himself on a journey exploring his inner
self. “I am here to explore. I am on a quest for personal integrity and unity. Man is asked to
make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulﬁll what he is meant. Don’t get me
wrong: I don’t do drugs. I relinquish anything that’s wrong. I’m high on life!“

Visitors of Christiania will meet Evil Knievel during his meditation exercises on the outer bank of
the compound. Evil Knievel will be meditating several hours a day sitting in a hole. Information
on where to ﬁnd him will be part of a greater installation at the Gallopperiet - Stadens Museum
of Kunst (Christiania).

At Gallopperiet - Stadens Museum of Kunst (Christiania) the audience is invited to get
comfortable in a tent made of haystacks and to study the literature Evil Knievel himself is
reading while at Christiania. Next to this information material a series of his new motivational
posters “think-imagine-inspire” is on display and for sale. – For those of you who want, take
one these do-it-yourself coachings home, to do something big in life, just like Evil Knievel.
Parallel to Evil Knievel’s stay the Stadens Museum of Kunst will be the setting for a series of
social events that will frame his spiritual quest (see below). Evil Knievel will be present.

Super A - New Hanover

”Welcome to New Hanover! New Hanover is a special place in the Pacific that has something for everyone. Rich in resources and with a multiplicity of people with rich and diverse cultures, customs, rituals, myths and legends, the island of New Hanover is well worth a visit.“

Spread the light!

When I was in my early teens, I think it must have been around the age of twelve, I had this perpetual vision of living in the glistening sunlight. To be exposed to an all-embracing envelope of light. In my imagination I was standing in the midst of a ray and was embraced by the warmth and equally blinding intensity of light.

This fantasy started as a dream. I was dreaming that I would wander around, walking in a desert or golden field, when I was suddenly hit by a light beam that not only illuminated me, but coated everything around me with a touch of white glow, leaving me with a feeling of intense joy, happier and more energized than I can remember.

I felt like I was floating in the midst of this warming experience, inside this shining beam that was covering me and which left everything in a state of eternal peace. It seemed like entering a bright, glowing room, like facing several suns, but more ethereal, literally an uplifting experience.

The ray itself was a spectacle of light, changing from white to all sorts of colors to eventually return to its purest form. White, bright, reflecting an aura of an all-encompassing happiness. A beacon of love and harmony. It was like meeting a long lost friend at a time of despair and darkness. All I remember now is the state of ecstasy. The cosy feeling the light was spreading. The warmth it was emitting and the gift I was receiving.

This fantasy kept me occupied and still does. All I’ve wanted since has been to return, to feel and to live that momentum.

The idea of light engaged me ever after. For a while I even studied its various forms and meanings. The religious cults connected to it, the link of light and knowledge, or that of light and salvation. I read about the concept of aura, and about the idea of light as a messenger of the past. I even studied its healing capacity. Light is such a powerful source. Sunlight even helps the body heal wounds and injuries and overcome virtually any illness.

There are so many aspects to light. It even has a very personal effect. Light lives within us and influences our relationships with others. We can adopt its virtues. To shine is not a matter of material or that of surface. You shine when your inner light is strong and your body is relaxed and energized enough to facilitate a clear conduit for the light to reach the surface and radiate out.

I even learned about the affirmative nature of light. Oddly as it may sound, after my countless injuries, that often left me on the brink of life, it was this vision of being exposed to the light that kept me alive. In these moments I was coming back to my dream and used it as form of recuperation and guidance.

Affirmations are such powerful tools and I don’t underestimate the impact they have on me. Even today in moments of great despair I come back and recharge by thinking of my dream. Light has become a guiding force for me since that time in my childhood and I try to consult my vision as often as I can.

You know, during my career I was and still am often faced with tough decisions. Decisions, that often put my life on the line. Do I want to jump and face a lethal injury? Or should I just leave and quit? These can be very haunting thoughts, especially just before a difficult jump. In these moments I consult my dream. I try to go back, visualize the moment, become at ease with my inner most self.

You know you can’t practice what I do. You can’t master it either. All you can do is conceive in your mind what you want to do and then go out and do it. I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge and accept the consequences. Since it is far better to risk my live, to win glorious triumphs, even though crippled and busted in half, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they don’t have the guts that knows neither victory nor defeat.

TP/PM: Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi, born in late eleven-hunderts, is in this respect an equally enigmatic figure, as he
wanted to life by the example. Born into the wealthy family of Pietro di Bernardone, he lived
through a carefree childhood and enjoyed the gay life of the richess. Only after Jesus spoke to
him through a vision and told him to re-erect his church, did he begin to associated with the
sufferings and INTERNALISED the passions and bearings of Jesus Christ, who was tormented
to death to bear a new church.

Francis himself took these sufferings to his heart. Guide by the example of Jesus he formed a
brotherhood, almost after the making of Jesus himself. He condemned the comforts of a wordly
life – letting him stand in one instant naked in front of his father and the religious elite of Assisi
to literally manifest his breaking off with his earlier life in a gay social whirl – to minuetly copy
the teachings and bearings of Jesus Christ.

This pro-active attempt to identify with Jesus – later to be known as IMITATIO CHRISTI –
also let to very tangible signs of his passion that should not be, though, the theme of today’s
event. Francis’ stigmata that he conceived – according to the legend – after a revelation by Jesus
himself, and that left him branded with the same marks as his ideal, are but just the symbolic
– almost vulgar – side of his striving to renovate the religious believes of his time. Signs that
Francis was always eager to hide from the public.

It is his teaching, the idea to life by the example, to worship through a simple, but exemplary
execution of a Christian life, rather than to spread one’s faith through words, spoken or written,
that made him become this very incarnation of Jesus. His all-embrassing love of life and nature,
his empathy for the poor and social outcasts, his condemnation of wordly wealth, to life himself
the life of poor and to work daily for his support, are what eventually made him become – as
some say – the ”other“, the “alter” Christ. It is this, his voyage from a deep felt devotion to the
blessed one to become a blessed one himself that we would like to take you on.

TP/PM: Heinrich Schliemann

As part of the course THINK POSITIVE / POSTGRADUATE ME I ask people to leave their
daily lives behind and follow me on a tour of personal discovery. We meet, often in smaller
groups, to revive and to re-life the personal visions of famous others.

This method, often referred to as self-affirmation or auto-suggestion, we take as a point of
departure to develop personal visions and greater personal goals. Here you can see us as we
enter the heart and mind of one of the most enigmatic figures of the late 19th century and father
of modern archaeology: Heinrich Schliemann.

Heinrich Schliemann, a man who went from a childhood in poverty to become one of the
wealthiest man of the late 19th century, was from his very early childhood on taken in by
the myths and stories of the Homeric sagas of the Iliad and the Odyssey. According to his
recollections he predicted as early as the age of 8 that he would discover Troy, the centre of the
Trojan war and starting point of Odysseus‘ epic journey.

However, Heinrich Schliemann not only fantasized about discovering the remains of the battle
site but saw himself as the reincarnation of and identified with the quest of Telemachus, the son
of Odysseus, to find his father.

This image of Telemachus in mind he later on - after almost 50 years of restless search -
uncovered the ruins of Troy. Consequently he is today almost as in-separately bound to the
ancient place as its mythical heroes are.

In their own quest for personal fulfillment I ask the participants of the course to renew and to
once again live through this vision of Heinrich Schliemann. – Join us. Concentrate, visualize
and form the mental picture that made Schliemann‘s fame.

Imagine Telemachus searching the plains of Anatolia. Imagine Heinrich visualizing to be this
very Telemachus. Imagine to be Heinrich.

THINK POSITIVE / POSTGRADUATE ME

THINK POSITIVE / POSTGRADUATE ME is a project that I called in to action at the end of
2006. It is designed to inquire into the practice of re-enactment as tool of goal-setting as well as
to emphasise the positive effects of affirmative ideals in your life; especially of those connected to
the idea and practice of auto-suggestions.

Auto-suggestions strike me as especially valid in this context; as it is such a successful technique
to change our lives, to alter our self-perception and to re-place a former negative mental attitude
with positive experiences. Let’s face it, there is nothing more valid than a positive ideal, one that
you can adopt and one that you can life up to.

To focus on these powers of pro-active identifications is the motif behind THINK POSITIVE /
POSTGRADUATE ME.

Since identifying one’s self with a successful image can help break the habits of self-doubt and defeat which years of negative mental attitude set within your personality. Another and equally important successful technique for changing your world is to identify yourself with an image that will inspire you to make the right decisions. It can be a slogan, a picture, or any symbol that is meaningful to you.

SUPER A

by Ken T Evans

This interview by Ken Evans was conducted on the occasion of Evil's newest show at the Kunstverein Langenhagen, where Evil Knievel will reveal his alter-ego Super A. Ken met Evil to discuss his latest project, to get to know more about Super A and to inquire whether this unexpected twist will be a turning point in the career of the greatest daredevil alive.

KEN T. EVANS: Mr. Knievel we are meeting here today to discuss one of your newest projects, if I am entitled to say so. With the show SUPER A you are coming forward with your alter-ego Super A for the first time. May I ask, when was it that you discovered that you had this secret other self?

EVIL KNIEVEL: Oh, it emerged over time. First I had, you know, this sense of otherness that I couldn't really place. It was like feeling a lack that was hidden deep beneath the surface. The discovery of Super A itself happened more by chance. I was watching a documentary and I instantly knew Super A was what had been missing.

Before we go into details about Super A and your other self I would like to ask you, why choose a place like Langenhagen, Germany, to go public with this rather personal matter?

With this show here in Langenhagen, Germany, I can fulfill a long-lived dream of mine. It really gives me the chance to make something exceptional. Super A has been on my mind for a long time now and I finally want to share him with my fans. I guess I thought the Kunstverein is the right place. The intimacy of the place equals the intimacy of my project. Besides I feel very honored to be here. It's a fine place and I am enjoying the collaboration.

You said you discovered Super A during a TV show. How should we understand this happening? Mr. Knievel, could you tell us how you knew about Super A.

As I said, I was just recovering from a stunt. I was lying in hospital. Lots of nice and cooperative nurses. I was watching a documentary about a guy called Agassiz, who did some weird stuff in the jungles, and suddenly everything made sense. It made sense to think of myself as another. Super A was the answer to a lot of things that were puzzling me at the time.

Could you be more specific on the things that 'were puzzling you'?

Well, there is this movie with Steve McQueen, you know, and this girl comes up to him and asks, `Honey, what's wrong?´ and he says something like, `what shall I be tomorrow´. You know, it never really left me. What I shall be tomorrow?

But surely it can't have been that simple.

Ken, stop asking yourself questions. Please!

But why here and now?

It's about time. You know, sometimes the right thing is the only thing to do!

It will just take us some time, I guess, to get used to your alter-ego and I am sure that you understand that Super A has a lot of expectations to live up to. Is there any chance that you can give us some more insights into the life of Super A? Who is he and how did you know his name?

It's good that you start to understand that patience is one of the most important trades in life. Super A is a fact. His personal history is not relevant.

I am not so sure. In our last interview you stressed the point that everything has evolved out of your personal history.

It's simply too early.

Let's come back to the beginning of Super A. In what sense was the discovery of Super A "revealing" to you?

In the sense, that it showed me that I can't take things for granted. You know, it's a very common ideal to think we are what we are, but then these unexpected things happen and we must acknowledge that we are far from being perfect.

And you think Super A makes you perfect?

Well, it might sound weird, but yes, I think Super A makes me feel at ease with things that are severely wrong and not just on a personal level. Super A takes me a step nearer to perfection.

Mr. Knievel, may I ask about the character of Super A? The term 'alter-ego' is often thought to express an opposition. Do you think Super A to be genuinely your antithesis?

Well, you would definitely think of him as my opposite. I rather refer to him as a natural complement. Say like existence and non-existence.

Sorry. That's lost on me.

Oh, I had this sense for a long time. It's a sad story. The sad story of my ego was precisely that I had to find a way to live with one ego rather than two. It's just now I have the strength and courage to come forward with this.

What does Super A mean to you?

On a very practical level he is my complement. He is what I'm not.

And how would you describe these differences? I mean temperament-wise? I think we can't neglect that he is black?

Do you think that matters to anyone?

Of course, ourreaders are interested in his appearance. What means 'blackness' to you?

It's more like a liberating act. You know, I couldn't wear black ties in public.

Who is stronger then, Evil Knievel or Super A? I mean, could it happen that Super A becomes more important than yourself?

Let me answer it this way. The strength of the first person is the weakness of the other. Everyone has his little specialities. Mine? I don't take easy assumptions for granted.

Not to become too persistent, but why exactly an alter-ego? Why live through another person? I mean there could be so many other ways to reach your fans.

For me it's a kind of experiment. I try to challenge my own assumptions. You know, experiences you can't control teach you a lot.

It strikes me as rather indecisive. Two in one. One in two. Excuse me, but that's a lame duck.

Well, think what you like. I couldn't be less bothered about your opinion, Ken.

By the way, should I address you as Evil Knievel or Super A?

Let's not go there.

But will it not be confusing for your fans that now you are two?

Stop it. Please.

Ok, but you still owe us an answer.

It's not like I said, hey I am Evil Knievel and I want to show the people what it's like to be Evil Knievel. You know, through some illusive figure. For me it's a very natural thing to have discovered my other self and I think it is equally natural to want to show it. Super A is very real to me. Not that I am schizophrenic or something. It seems just very natural to have come across myself in that way. And that's what I try to express. That's what I want to share with my fans.

Last time we met, I have to say you, you suppressed your alter-ego very well.

Don't get me wrong, I know that there is one thing I want to be and that is Evil Knievel.

Fair enough. So is there a general drive behind your coming forward and presenting your alter-ego? I mean, in a way it's exhibitionistic. Some critics might say it's just another way of you feeding the voyeuristic need of the masses.

Well, I see it as a discovery of another side of myself. A very hidden self. When I first recognized that I had this other part in me, it was a kind of revelation. And to talk about voyeuristic urge. It's a big word. According to them that's what my shows come down to. You know, I couldn't care less. Let's take a scientist. If he finds a new species in a remote corner of America, he is not going to say, hey, keep it a secret. The fist thing he is going to do is to come forward with it.

Have you any predictions what it will mean in practical terms for the show?

You know the secret is that the more you reveal about yourself, the more you have to move on. It's almost as much of an advantage as it is a disadvantage. People say, I know him, I know him so well. They assume just because you are in the media, they know who you are. Anyhow, but by the time they get to you, you're different.

How does starring as Super A feel compared to the daily routines of a daredevil?

Well, the thing is that whenever you do a new show, there are parts of it that are comfortable for you and other parts that aren't. Starring now as Super A is for sure a challenge. A challenge I am happy to take.

Are there any risk-taking qualities in revealing this intimate detail about yourself? I myself wouldn't know whether I could or even want to share it with a bunch of people.

Ken, let me tell you, there are two ways to handle the side of yourself that you don't want to make too available. One is to hide it, which most people do. And the other way, which is dangerous in the beginning because you don't know what you are doing, but if you let it all hang out so to speak, then you're no longer that person, you've moved on. You move on. It is always worth taking the risks, even if the blame seems too overwhelming to begin with.

Do you think this show will change your appearance as a daredevil? Your reputation might be at stake.

Well, I think we should ask this in reverse. What does it mean for the perception of my persona? I mean, they, the general public, sees me, but they see me like in a 10-second byte at times. And I have talked about some personal moments in the past. Anyhow, I think it's important for me to be able to share my experience with them - and this is one way to do so.

Let's phrase it differently. What I'd like to know is, will the figure of Super A in any way change your performance as a stuntman?

Well, it's always hard to predict. I will change. Everyone does.

So what do you think about your future then?

I don't have a set opinion, I have a question. I'm curious about the outcome.

The Stripping Light Fantastic!

by Peter Hush

YOU ARE ONLY HUMANS

The first time I saw EVIL KNIEVEL was back in 1999. He had then started his career as a stuntman. In an embryonic version of today's I LOVE AMERICA he made his first appearances in clubs and other venues. It is unnecessary to mention that they didn't bear the brilliance of today's "grown up" version.

Nevertheless, the first time I saw him I was instantly drawn to his appearance. I was thrilled by his larger than life appeal, especially by his enchanting demeanor and his red-white-and-blue leathers. Ever since then I am what you might call a devoted fan. I have been to most of his shows, and if given the chance, I wouldn't miss any.

His early appearances back then were minimal in style but undoubtedly committed to his many and various interests. His first wider attention came during the appearance of YOU ARE ONLY HUMANS - THE ROADSHOW, that by some evil minded people was compared to a freak show, calling it nasty things like therapeutic and anal. Whatever the critics said, the show was a revelation for EVIL, leaving him with the mighty task of rolling, kneading and forming a vast amount of red plasticine sausages – snakes of envy and revenge.

Alongside YOU ARE ONLY HUMANS - THE ROADSHOW there was the adaptation of his early life in the club scene: in 2002 EVIL KNIEVEL made what was to become one of his best performances yet: I LOVE AMERICA.

I LOVE AMERICA stars EVIL KNIEVEL as a dancer expanding his talents well beyond the limits of his stuntman-ship. In a short act that seems to take forever EVIL dances to the rhythmical clapping of a bunch of kids. Yet to describe it as dance would be well an understatement. In an as yet unseen fashion EVIL rocks his legs, shakes his hips, moves his body. That's what I call the stripping light fantastic!

A very intriguing show to watch, I LOVE AMERICA enjoys a huge popularity! Highly energetic and minimal in nature it was shown in places like the Kunstverein, the Musterraum, and the Haus der Kunst, all Munich, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, and Jan Winkelmann, Berlin.

MORE BALLS THAN BRAIN

In December 2003 I was also able to travel to London to see EVIL's show MORE BALLS THAN BRAIN. In two shop windows in the heart of London EVIL had installed a replica of his home in Butte, Montana. Showing in one window an image of his mansion, notably situated on the 18th hole of Butte's public golf course, he recreated in the other window a copy of the inside of his living quarters.

To my recollection this show started off from a very timid joke on his critics perspective on his so-called 'male-centric perception', stating the obvious: two is better than one. EVIL, however, is very unhappy with any perception of his being a macho man. In person he is a loving and caring fellow who devotes much of his time to charity work. He repeatedly complains of how tired he is of this testosterone soaked image. As he often reminds me: "People are so caught up with labels."

Please let me take the opportunity here to say something personal about the accusations. I have known EVIL KNIEVEL for a long time now and I had the chance to meet him on many occasions, during his shows, but also in a more private setting. During all those encounters I never had the slightest doubt of his credibility, he always made me feel at ease as a person and I have great sympathy with his well expressed opinions.

A statement by the late Liberace could not be more suited for next public appearance of EVIL in the following year of 2004. "When I am, I want to look like their image of me" could well describe the emblematic scheme of the next show.

Dressed as white cowboy EVIL is sitting on a TV-set, that shows the image of a burning campfire. Four floating American Flags are hovering underneath the ceiling and are building a neat firmament. While sitting on the fire EVIL is chewing some gum, occasionally taking a sip of his Coke while talking to his numerous friends. In the background you can hear the faint voice of Mick, the singer of Simply Red, who is praising God for a friend he never dared to have.

In the following half of 2004 EVIL KNIEVEL was invited to perform at "teutopia" an installation by the artist corporation Atelier van Lieshout (then itself a part of the project "ortstermine" by the art council Munich). Delighted by the kind offer EVIL decided to pay his special dues. In an unselfish effort he set out to clean the installation for the whole six months it was displayed.

"teutopia" - a house-like structure with two floors and a watch tower bears many connotations to the (not so pleasant) history of recent Germany. Installed at the Olympiaberg, a hill formed from the debris of the city's war ruins, it further raises concerns about the past.

Equipped with a trolley and various cleaning gears EVIL stepped out to keep "teutopia" clean, nice, and shiny. He scrubbed the floor, mowed the lawn, polished the scaffolding, cleaned the windows, and generally looked after the hygiene of the eco-friendly outhouses of the installation.

Paying his respect EVIL KNIEVEL work in a self-sacrificial way trying to keep the installation intact. And what others might see as menial labour, EVIL KNIEVEL considers his undeniable duty. As he says: "I could never understand this punk attitude from those who say they want to make things worse."

A mere six months later in March 2005 EVIL was able to host a night committed to idea of friendship. A value so neglected in recent days. In association with the Luitpold Lounge, Munich, EVIL was able to stage an event meant to cherish this valuable treasure. As co-star of the night EVIL invited one dear friend of his, Miss Martha Stern, to share their common thoughts on friendship.

Taking off from the introduction of Dale Carnegie "How to win friends!" the evening developed into a lesson in life: "In talking with people, don't begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Begin by emphasizing – and keep on emphasizing – the things on with you agree. Keep emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose."

Well, Evil, thanks for being Evil. You have been a great inspiration to all of us. Keep on rolling!

THE INTERVIEW

by Ken T Evans

In the late summer of 2005, I was able to visit Evil Knievel in his house in the remote mountains of Tehachapi on Matterhorn Drive, California. Over the course of an afternoon we discussed his breath taking career. Though not very communicative at first, Evil gave a vivid insight into his current state of affairs, his overall outlook on life and his prospects for the future, but see for yourself.

Mr. Evil Knievel, let me take the opportunity and say how honored I feel that we have the chance to meet and talk today. Especially since it seems so rare that you grant interviews anyway.

Sure.

Let me start with some general questions to then come to the more specific facts about your life. How are you today? Are you comfortable?

Yeah. Thanks. The pleasure is all mine. And please, don't worry about my personal well-being too much. As they say I am used to tough rides.

Would you like to start with a topic or a statement? Something you think our readers might be interested in?

Frankly? No.

Well then, let me ask you, when and where was the last time you performed in public?

I didn't perform anything. The last time I was with an audience I was dancing. Plain dancing. What a stupid question.

Okay. Can you tell us a bit more about the dancing, then. For example, when did you start your career as a dancer?

Well, my career started around the time when I stopped working in my previous job. Though this is actually very much part of my career, but I will tell you about that later. I have been dancing since I can remember. It didn't really change much since my youth. I dance like I was dancing as a child.

That's very peculiar. So you say your style is a relict of your youth. Did you ever try to change that?

It is by no means a relic. Anyway, when you are successful you don't change. You would be a damned fool, if you did.

Were your parents into music? I mean did they make you play an instrument or teach you how to dance?

In general my parents are happy people. Especially when it comes to the Friday nights, dancing is their thing. They go out to these line dance gatherings a lot. Sunday lunch karaoke was also highly popular among my folks. As I remember, we used to leave quite early on Sunday to go out on the highway and meet up with their friends. It was a time filled with music and love.

What kind of music did your parents listen to?

Country music mostly, though, I was drawn to what the Italians call 'il rombo' early on, the fine tunes of engines.

How are your parents today? You were raised in Butte, Montana. Maybe you could describe your upbringing in a few words for our readers.

My parents are fine. They are simple people, but happy. You know, plain, hard-working people. Straight forward in a sense. I never heard them complain. In a sense I had a protected childhood. I was born in Butte, Montana. My Dad was originally from the countryside. He moved into the city when he was a teenager. My Mum was raised in Butte. Her Dad was a miner. We lived in a small house and it was there that I earned my reputation as a hell-raiser.

So you have a lot of good memories from your childhood. Do you still have a lot of friends from back then?

Well, I wasn't what you call a big socializer. Frankly, I don't have many friends from around that time. Anyway they weren't really necessary either. I had my daily routines. The kids I saw were at school. I quit when I was 15.

How would you describe your relation to kids then?

I'd say good. Never had any problems there. Actually I have a lot of fans among the small people. You know, kids mean a lot to me. If it wasn't for the kids, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing.

So, you think it's just natural that they are among the biggest group of supporters of yours. What is it that makes you so appealing to them?

You have to treat the boys and girls with respect. Over the years I have been to many of their gatherings. It's always a very euphoric atmosphere there. I enjoy it a lot. Kids are very enthusiastic about meeting Evil Knievel. You know, not just as a star. I sense a real interest in me. In the end it's not just about performance, but about possibilities. You want to give them a dream they can live by and live better. That's what I try to do. Give them possibilities. When I go to their clubs I show them little stunts. Nothing too daring. Just stunts they can do themselves. While showing them, though, I always also see it as an opportunity to talk about the dangers of my profession. I talk about street safety and the inherent dangers of jumping. You know, what I do is not just a question of simply showing off. My job needs a lot of preparation. That's what they ought to know.

But don't you think boys and girls are supporting you for different reasons?

Liberace once said, act for the boys, dress for the ladies! I mean, that's pathetic! On a superficial level, boys and girls may express their anticipation and enthusiasm in different ways, but they are still all looking at the same thing. Honestly, I don't make any differences between my supporters. I try to give them a good show. No gimmicks. No second guesses. Just a plain simple show.

But talking about the girls that faint when they see you, I mean, you are a real hero to them. Don't you think you have at least some responsibilities towards them and their feelings?

Yes, sure, but I never take advantage of them. Whether my life is appealing to them for other reasons? It's for others to decide. Understanding and managing the appeal doesn't mean control. I only give them a positive outlook on life.

Talking about stardom. Is there anyone who is competing with your position? I mean, you are very unique in your field of business. Not only do you cover a wide range of activities, but in a sense you are a role model. A model many live by. You are a true hero to them.

That’s right. Now you start to understand. For me it's virtues like self-reliance, honesty, and sincerity that I live by and hope others will too. Virtues like living up to your word, that's what people should do. And that's the problem with the world. I am from a very small village, but I never had the smallest doubt about the virtues of America. I knew from very early on that its principles are within me. That its principles are me.

And how about the culture of your fans? I mean the extensive culture of imitating you. Doesn't this conflict with your persona? And not just because your profession is so dangerous. The idea of copying you, seems so far out. I always thought, what's important is that you do things that are unique.

Not at all. You ask about kids imitating me, and I'll tell you, I hope they do. Besides, there is nothing wrong with following a decent and successful model. I hope kids do imitated me and hopefully you, too.

Well, I don't think me imitating you would be a good idea. I doubt, that I would be here, would I?

(laughs) Sure, but you will admit, that I'm just a model. Like, say, Mother Theresa. In my time I always thought her terrific. Honestly there was nothing better around. On Sundays I would watch TV always hoping to see new stories about her great life.

And that's when you became involved in the church.

You are kidding.

She wouldn't be a bad reason to become involved with the church.

Just like Mother Theresa spread kindness and hope. For sure they are universal virtues, core values I want to express with my work, too.

Are you a more religious man now or when you were younger?

I have more faith now than when I was younger, because my mother used to take me to church every Sunday, and it was just an obligation so I wouldn't get smacked across the face. Later on, when I had the chance to rebel, when I was 18 or 19 and was riding high being the local champion, I never went to church. I thought the whole thing was absolutely absurd. Then when you get older, and especially when you have children, your faith changes again. You just know without anyone telling you. The circle comes around again and you get back to where you started. It's interesting, you know, when you have a family and when you have kids, you start thinking back to what your parents taught you, you start thinking back to all the things you rebelled against and all of a sudden you say, 'This makes sense now.' And you give the same teaching to your kids now. Then, in a few years, they'll rebel and come back. It's a continuous cycle like that.

Talking about cycles, are there any other idols, that you would compare to Mother Theresa?

Abraham Lincoln.

Here our conversation is interrupted by a ringing phone. After Evil has talked to his manager, apparently urging him to calm down, we continue our discussion.

Mr. Knievel, before we were interrupted, we were talking about your idols. Maybe you could talk a bit more about your heroes and why you are interested in them. Why Abraham Lincoln? What's so fascinating about him?

We were talking about Abraham Lincoln?

Yes.

Do you mind, if we talk about something else? At least in my mind it seems more fruitful to talk about the living. Anyway. The people I want to hear about are the people that take risks.

Sure, as you took the art of taking risks to another level.

Excuse me …Don't worry, it’s okay …

… I hope, you don't think, I have nothing better to do, than risking my life for the sake of it. Or just for its media appeal. That's fucking ridiculous. Risks? Risk is risk! I'm here so that you learn how to take risks. That's all. Go out and ask all those people that risk their life on a daily routine. I mean, that's the problem with the world. Because we all want to be accepted, we all want things to go well, to have people like us. People with a cause. It's the same with me, except it's just that the profession I have is so out there, meaning that every time I have a failure, then millions of people, a billion people, witness it. Of course, they also witness my successes, but it makes you even more vulnerable. But I like this profession, and I like being on the edge like that, and I like to have that danger zone always. And that's why I'm in this profession.

What is your profession then?

My profession is to be successful. To be without compromise and with all my devotion to be what I am. I am and I do what I do - that's my profession. I live up to my best, to show the American people how to live.

But there must be a name to what you are doing?

I do what I do. I don’t ask questions. I am Evil Knievel.

Don't you think that's a bit too simple?

What is this? An interview or what? I don’t know what you call simple. I reject your whole phony attitude of searching for something meaningful on an intellectual basis. Always second guessing. Always missing the point.

I'm sorry, I didn't meant to offend you. Maybe you want to tell us about your American way then.

As I said before the greatness of this nation are its virtues. Virtues like self-reliance. You know, not just to talk, but to accomplish things. That's what's important. In that sense I am a pioneer. I go out in the wilderness and see things more clearly.

Are you sure you want to be seen as a pioneer?

Of course. I step out into the world and seek for limitations. Limits no one ever dared to challenge. I did this when I was young and I am still doing it. When I was 12 my dad wanted to know, what it is I want to become. You know, what it is I want to do with my life. All I did was get my coat and walk through the woods for hours. When I came to a clearing in the forest I could see a little deer. However, its mother was not to be seen. It must have been killed by a hunter or someone. Well, I had to rescue it. So I took the fawn home and looked after it until it could look after itself. When it was old enough I released it. It came back once in a while. My dad never ever again asked me what it is I want to become.

That seems a very brave thing to do. Were there other events in your childhood and youth you can remember that shaped your way of living?

Certainly my first work experiences were highly influential. When I dropped out of school I made my living selling polish for cars door to door. Those experiences shaped me a lot. As I told you, I was an outsider. I was never any good at school. But working for a living, told me, that there are things worth living for.

How do we have to imagine this kind of work?

For almost three years I sold products for cleaning cars and motorcycles. It was either as a door salesman or at stalls in big shopping centers. My colleagues and me would erect the display in their main lobbies every morning and then sell the products. A very exciting time of my life. I travelled a lot and met a lot of nice people. Well, not as many as today, certainly, but most of them were honest, hard-working guys. The vibrations of the polishing machines still sends shivers down my spine.

How come you took the job? It obviously involves a lot of talking, and you can't say your are a big talker. I mean, to be a salesman you need to have at least some kind of language skills.

Sure.

So how did it shape you then, if not as a communicator?

I got to know the heart of America. Traveling to almost every corner of the country I had the chance to talk to a lot of people. You know, when you talk to them in person, that's when you get to know their problems. You know, what's driving them. Whether it's in Butte, Montana or Times Square.

And how did you get to know the people?

Mainly through the polishing products. That was one of the first lessons I had to learn. The way into the hearts of the consumer is to be honest. And that's the problem with today. A decline in sincerity.

Do you miss this intimate relationship with the people since you became a superstar?

Working as a daredevil I still feel deeply connected to my supporters. Even closer than ever.

Let's come back to your career today. What I am interested in is, how could a single stuntman become such a big star?

Like selling car vanish, you have to earn your respect. And that's just possible with plain and simple work. I never played with the expectation of my audience. Just as I was always cautious never to harm them either. You know, in the field of stunts you can't rely on tricks or illusions. Everything is real. There is no back up or any kind of safety net. It's honest work and the audience should see that. And believe me, my fans instantly understood and appreciated it.

You mean the masses.

Oh no, on the contrary, it's the single fan I am interested in. If just one of them sees a stunt of mine, my mission is accomplished.

Yes, I can see that, but you don’t want to relinquish your hold on the individual. You can't deny that your work attracts the masses. I mean, you live the American dream. A dream dreamt by many.

Well, let me tell you. None of the stuff that has happened to me, either personally or in my career, would have happened without being in this country. America has shown me that it is the land of opportunities. If you're willing to work hard and if you're willing to educate yourself and learn how the system works in this country — the political system, the economic system, how to make money and build a career — if you're willing to learn and work hard, anyone can make it. That's what I embody when I go out and do my stunts. That's what the show is all about.

So you see your stunts primarily as a vehicle to success. I mean, you couldn't have done anything else, could you?

As I said before, I always followed and still follow the principle that if you fall you have to get up again. You know, if someone refuses to get up after he made a mistake then he is a real failure to me. Success is not a question of the immediate result. Success is a question of the right, positive attitude. I am here, because I am man enough. If you are in doubt about your profession you wouldn't do it. Right? You don't look for your true calling. Everyone has it inside of him or her. You just have to explore it.

But which attitudes constitute a good explorer then? Couldn't you have been an actor or whatever?

I could never have been an actor. I am here to take on dares, to challenge limitations, not to imitate some lousy life.

Yes, but most of your stunts end in despair. One is inclined to say that you spend more time hospitalized than you spend on preparing your next gig.

Taking risks is as essential to life as is breathing.

Okay, maybe you could tell our readers, as we are reaching the end of our time, where do you see yourself, say, in five years time? Will you still be a daredevil? Or will you calm down a bit? The risks involved in your career are immense. I suppose, most of the fans will understand, if you stop and start something new.

I live in the present. I don't think about the past. I don't predict the future either.

Can't you imagine changing your career and settle in a new, maybe even more challenging profession?

I won't change. At least not for now. If you are successful and you change, you are an idiot.

Me President

In a series of short two episode video clips Evil Knievel is the president of the United States of America. One time he is George Walker Bush talking to his hands at his farm in Crawford, TX, or he stars Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office.